Fox News's Beckel Issues Quasi-Apology for Rape Comments

Taken to task by numerous individuals on Twitter yesterday -- see Twitchy's excellent roundup here -- Fox News Channel The Five liberal co-host Bob Beckel today sought to explain, if not actually apologize for, his comments on the February 19 program in which the panel's token liberal both suggested campus rapes were rare incidents and that college co-eds might accidentally shoot someone who was not really a rapist:

BOB BECKEL: Yesterday, a number of people responded to what I said about date rape as if I didn't think it was a serious issue. Of course I think it's a serious issue. It's a horrible, horrendous issue.

And it's simply put, this, rape is rape. Whether it's date rape or it's somebody coming in off the campus trying to rape somebody else. I very strongly feel that way. And so, I just want to straighten the record out on that. I simply was trying to make -- there was not a distinction to make here. It simply was that date rape is rape. And that is, by ay other definition, rape is rape.

At that point, co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle chimed in that Beckel's rape comments came in the context of discussing "guns on campuses," which was "the larger issue that [Beckel was] talking about." Guilfoyle then sought to move on from the awkward non-apology by introducing the next topic: Joe Biden holding forth on why a shotgun is better than an AR-15 for home defense.

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